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Justin Timberlake at Co-op Live, Manchester – support act, setlist, tickets and more

What tour? The world tour!

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 6th August 2024

Justin Timberlake is heading to Manchester this week on his massive The Forget Tomorrow World Tour.

The so-called prince of pop is set to play at the Co-op Live arena on Thursday 8 August as part of the European leg of the tour. (What tour? The world tour!)

He’s behind some of the biggest chart-topping pop songs of a generation, including SexyBack, Mirrors, and Trolls hit Can’t Stop The Feeling.

Justin Timberlake’s career spans decades, first as a member of boyband NSYNC, then as a hugely successful solo performer.

Timberlake has told more than 63 million singles globally as a solo artist and has 10 Grammy Awards on his shelf.

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If you’re heading to his gig at Co-op Live on 8 August, here’s everything you need to know.

Who’s supporting Justin Timberlake on his UK tour?

A support act for the UK leg of Justin Timberlake’s tour hasn’t actually been announced.

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It’s quite likely he’ll just have a DJ warming up the crowds before he takes to the stage, but we’ll be sure to update this if we hear any differently.

Tickets for Justin Timberlake at Co-op Live

Justin Timberlake has announced the European leg of his tour, including a Manchester show.
Justin Timberlake has announced the European leg of his tour, including a Manchester show.

The Co-op Live is close to being totally sold out for Justin Timberlake, but there are still a few tickets at a range of prices available for his Manchester show.

The best availability at the time of writing is for seated tickets at £109.95 for the upper tier, or £126.50 in the lower tier.

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Some of those still on sale are really close to the action, too.

Tickets then hop up to £148.95 to be in the floor seating section, or – if you want to get really, really close to Mr Trousersnake himself, there are £222.50 ‘Stage Bar’ tickets which are right up close to the B Stage.

There’s even a bar and VIP tables in this area.

See the latest availability at Ticketmaster here.

Justin Timberlake setlist in Manchester

Justin Timberlake has got an epic setlist that includes 28 absolute pop bangers.

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Artists do occasionally shake up their setlists show-to-show, but this has been pretty solid for the Forget Tomorrow World Tour so far.

This is the setlist from Justin’s recent show in Belgium.

No Angels
LoveStoned
Like I Love You
My Love
Technicolor
Sanctified
Infinity Sex
FutureSex/LoveSound
Imagination
Drown
Cry Me a River
Let the Groove Get In
My Favorite Drug
Señorita
Summer Love
F**kin’ Up the Disco
Play
Suit & Tie
Flame
Say Something
Pusher Love Girl
Until the End of Time
Selfish
What Goes Around… Comes Around
CAN’T STOP THE FEELING!
Rock Your Body
SexyBack
Encore:
Mirrors

Stage times for Justin Timberlake at Co-op Live

The exact stage times may not get announced until the day of the show (we’ll keep this updated nearer the time), but we do know the following:

  • Doors – 6.30pm
  • Event starts – 7pm
  • Justin Timberlake rough stage time- 8.45pm
  • Curfew – 11pm

Official throwback after party

Not ready to call it a night after Justin exits the stage? Co-op Live has you covered.

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The venue is throwing a free afterparty, right after the event until 1am, featuring non-stop Noughties hits from the likes of NSync, Britney, Backstreet Boys, Usher, and Nelly.

The official throwback party is free to enter, on a first-come-first-served basis, and is 18+ only. You’ll need to show your gig ticket to get in.

How to get to Co-op Live via tram, driving, or walking

Tram

Now, as for how you’ll get to shows at Co-op Live, luckily it’s right next door to a rather famous big blue stadium and its integrated Metrolink stop.

Head along the light blue or orange lines directly to the Etihad Campus or Ashton-under-Lyne and you can get off the tram literally spitting distance from the arena. You can find the full map HERE.

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Trams run frequently on the Ashton-Eccles line to the Etihad stop, with services leaving every six minutes from the city centre and until 01:00 on Fridays and Saturdays.

An integrated tram travel scheme, with free trams with your gig ticket, has been extended for Justin Timberlake.

Bus

If you want to take another new and improved arm of Manchester’s public transport system, not only is there a whole host of routes that drop you off close to the venue but there’ll also be a free shuttle bus from the city centre to and from events between 20 April-30 June 2024.

You can find the full list of bus routes HERE, with the one in closest proximity to the venue being the 53 bus which runs from Cheetham Hill through to Higher Crumpsall, Old Trafford and Pendleton, leaving just a two-minute walk to Co-op Live. You also get free Bee Network travel with any valid event ticket.

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Co-op Live and TfGM to offer FREE trams and buses to and from new arena for all event ticket holders

Getting there by car and parking

If you’re driving, there is limited parking available at the venue but this must be pre-booked ahead of time and there are designated drop-off areas.

The postcode is M11 3DU and you can follow the signs towards the wider Etihad Campus as you get closer; directions to the adjacent drop-off points will also be signposted.

Keep in mind that congestion on the roads close to the stadium is expected to gather around two hours prior to any event, so if you are travelling on the road, these are the suggested times they provide come event day – though estimates will obviously vary:

  • Alan Turing Way (both directions): plan an additional 20 minutes into any journey by road.
  • Hyde Road (eastbound): expect an additional 15 minutes to be added to your journey.
  • Mancunian Way (westbound): plan for an extra 10 minutes of travel time.

There are also three park-and-ride facilities near Co-op Live but be advised that the Velopark and Holt Town stops will be closed post-event to help safely manage crowds:

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  • Ashton Moss (Ashton line) – 183 spaces and 12 disabled spaces
  • Ashton West (Ashton line) – 184 spaces and 11 disabled spaces
  • Ladywell (Ashton-Eccles line) – 332 spaces and 22 disabled spaces

Walk/cycle

Lastly, Co-op Live is only a half-hour stroll from Manchester Piccadilly and you could even walk along the canal all the way to the front door if you fancy taking the scenic route.

Greater Manchester now also offers the option to hire bikes through the Beryl, with riders able to locate, unlock, get to their destination and then safely lock up the boke all through an easy-to-use app. There are hire points just near the south-west corner of the Etihad Stadium on Ashton New Road.

For more information on all travel options, you can check out the enhanced journey planner.

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Featured image: Supplied, Charlotte Rutherford

Audio

Chatting the return of Northern Soul live and Orchestrated with radio legend Stuart Maconie

Danny Jones Danny Jones Northern Soul Orchestrated Manchester tickets

Ahead of the wildly successful and cult-favourite Northern Soul Orchestrated UK tour returning to the likes of Manchester, Liverpool and more, we were lucky enough to get some time with the man curating the latest run of sensational shows.

Following the success of its debut at the Royal Albert Hall as part of last year’s BBC Proms, what was intended to be a one-off night of music is now a fully-fledged live production coming to the O2 Apollo this winter alongside a small handful of select and equally special venues.

Similarly, the classic Northern Soul tracks being pulled out of the archives are just as carefully hand-picked by radio legend and the event’s much-loved host, Stuart Maconie, a revered veteran broadcaster for the best part of three decades.

Set to take his baby and the brilliant BBC Orchestra on the road once again for four nights only, we sat down with Stu to break down why people are once again going mad for the music and dance movement.

stuart maconie radio DJ
northern soul orchestrated manchester apollo
Credit: Bryan Ledgard/Mikey (via Flickr)

Northern Soul Orchestrated returns this November, how are you feeling ahead of the tour?

Oh, really excited. I mean, the shows so far have been incredible. People always talk up things obviously, but I couldn’t have predicted the level of excitement we’ve got from the crowd.

I mean, it all comes out of that one performance, as you know, that Northern Soul prom at Albert Hall last year, which was just a triumph and almost immediately we all thought, “We can’t only do this once.”

And so we did we did a string of dates in April, including at Factory International in Manchester, and the audiences have been incredible. I mean, this music is music that it’s hard not to love, you know what I mean? It’s passionate, it’s dramatic, it’s brilliant, and people don’t just quite like Northern Soul, you know what I mean? They love it.

There are some real devotees who know every song, and you can see that they know every word of these songs even though they were never hit records.

Yeah, it’s always had a real cult-like following, right?

For sure. These songs mean so much to them because they’ve been the soundtrack of their life since they were teenagers so they’ve grown up to them: they got their first job to them, they got their first partner to them; they got married, they got divorced, they’ve lost loved ones, they’ve lost jobs etc.

I also think they speak about the things that really concern people in their lives. Heartbreak, work, family, and you can see it in their eyes just how much this music means to them.

Having said that, if you’ve never heard a note of Northern Soul, if it’s a baffling mystery to you – less these days than it used to be because back in the day, in the 1970s, it was very much an underground thing; little clubs, people exchanging records almost in secret. That was part of its allure, I think.

You went to these clubs and heard this music that nobody else knew about. You met like-minded people from all around the country so, yeah, it was a real cultish scene. But now, thanks to the internet – although the internet’s got many things to answer for – it’s been great for putting people together like Northern Soul fans.

You can now buy compilation CDs of records that would’ve been as rare as hen’s teeth back in the 70s, so it’s helped ‘keep the faith’ as the phrase goes and spread the word and I’m really excited about it.

Absolutely, and you kind of have the ideal role as curator, don’t you?

Oh yes, I mean, the shows like the April were astonishing, emotional and thrilling, and I’ve got such a great day ahead of me, it’s fantastic.

I’ve got the best job there because yeah, most of the work’s already done; I just sit back and enjoy it basically, yeah. I come on five or six times, I wave and people go mad, you know. The crowd’s having a great time and loving it – I just get a chance to be part of this fantastic party.

It is good and useful to have me there though [he laughs] because you need to set the music in some kind of context and it’s good to go to places and talk a little about their time and their experience of Northern Soul.

All the places we’ve been so far have got their own rich bit of Northern Soul heritage. Manchester, obviously, with the Twisted Wheel [nightclub] – arguably the birthplace of the movement – and I guess there might be one or two people that actually went there then and are now reliving it.

Yeah, I think it’s also having a real renaissance at the minute too – like Northern Soul Nights are a thing once again all over Greater Manchester and beyond, be it in Stockport or under the arches at Thirsty Scholar as it has for years...

—You know it and, more importantly, new generations are hearing it now. It’s a bit like folk music or the Beatles or whatever: new generations hear it and there’s something just so brilliant about the music, it transcends genre, it transcends generation.

Anybody who likes music hears ‘Do I Love You’ by Frank Wilson or these records, and goes “God, this is good”, and it transcends those usual boundaries. I think it’s just quintessentially brilliant pop music.

What is it you think about the genre and maybe the era as well that you think makes it so special? Because like you say it’s not just the music, it’s the aesthetic, the style of movement, the fashion…

Yeah, everything. I think that a lot of it has to do with that cultishness we mentioned. You’re not just getting into a style of music, you’re getting into a way of life in a way, of like-minded people. There’s a lot about friendship and a lot about class, I think, in the best sense of the word.

One of the things I love about the music, and I say this a lot, is this was music primarily made by working-class Black people in Detroit and New York and American industrial cities in the late 1960s, mid-60s, then embraced by working-class white people in the north and the middles in the early 1970s.

I really love that sense of kinship between those two communities. I think that they have a lot in common and I think it’s important to showcase that. They were people who worked hard, often in demanding jobs that were not well paid, and I think they sang about the things that were true to them, like their lives, their jobs; their heartbreaks, their love lives and their families. I think that’s why people relate to it.

It just looks good too; the dancing’s great and it has a whole associated aesthetic, as you say – a real built-in subculture and you can buy into different bits of it as well. Like, I know some of the big Northern Soul DJs never dance. Yeah. I mean, they’re into the collecting and the curation, but they don’t dance.

In fact, I’ve only very rarely seen some of the top DJs dance. Some people are into it for the dancing, some people are into it for the clothes, some people are into it for just the music.

There are even people who actively track down everything on the Revilot or Ric-Tic label and stuff like that. There’s so much to enjoy and it has a real sense of joy and community at its heart I think.

northern soul music
northern soul dancing
Credit: Charles Patch/Tim Simpson (via Flickr)

Yeah, it’s a very upbeat and uplifting scene. Will we be seeing you pulling out any moves at all?

You know what, I think I might do. I’m not sure if I’ve done that yet. The trouble is, it’s a bit difficult for me because, with the best will in the world, if I go out into the crowd while it’s happening, people then want to stop and talk. I’d love to but I’d be there forever, you know, but it is a lovely atmosphere.

At the prom, I snuck out into the bit where the promenade is for a bit during ‘The Night’ by Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, brilliantly sung by Darrell Smith. It was an amazing moment, I’ll never forget it. The whole other hour that I was on their feet.

I love that. I mean, obviously, you mentioned the debut at the Proms – what’s changed in the production since then?

We’re still talking about what to do for the event dates and it’s a nice dilemma to have. It works so well and you’re taking it to new audiences, so we have been debating do we freshen it up or ‘if ain’t broke don’t fix it’?

We dropped and added a few songs between the Prom and the live show but we’re still in discussion about what to do because these are new audiences and also a lot of people saw that performance because it was the most watched televised Prom after the annual Last Night of, I believe.

So a lot of people watched it and recorded it; you also don’t want it to disappoint and people do want to have that experience recreated in a live setting, so you don’t want to disappoint them. Last year it was very important to me and Joe [Duddell] that we had the same singers and BBC Concert Hall Orchestra,

I think if people had come along and seen, frankly, an inferior orchestra or an inferior set of singers, maybe they’d have felt shortchanged, so it was important that we replicated as much as we could and that’s what we’re doing. To those who come along and help, we can guarantee you a brilliant night out.

stuart maconie interview
Stu at the helm on stage for the Northern Soul Orchestrated debut in 2023 (Credit: Andy Paradise via supplied)

Yeah, obviously the classics are gonna be a mainstay and you just touched on Joe there, a very talented Manchester local – how special is it to have him on board?

Yeah, so it’s weird now thinking that when we go out and we go on stage and there are waves of love and passion from the audience. I remember in our early Zoom calls where we were just with a big spreadsheet going, “What should we do? What about this Should we put that there?”

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I remember us having those discussions and very quickly realising these songs are really short and that we were going to be doing about 34 songs, so a lot of it was thinking how do we pace it? Because obviously, you could just have banger after banger and have people exhausted after an hour and a half.

Sometimes, you know, you need a little bit of texture – a little bit of tempo change – but by the end, it’s just one big party. It’s amazing to think that we started swapping emails and sending Spotify links to see if this would work and specifics like whether we’d need bassoons, and now we’ve brought it to life.

A lot of it was me saying, “Well, you know Joe mate, I’ll leave that up to you!”

Fair enough haha – but yes, there has to be a lot more hard work that goes into building the set on both ends, surely?

One of our great decisions early on, I think, was we have a band, we have the orchestra, we’re fantastic, but at the centre of the stage we have another little band, so we have a bass a drummer and electric guitars, and that’s really neat because the record themselves had those elements.

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The difference is that when people put orchestras on pop music nowadays, this is how the people who made these records would have wanted them to sound if they had the money back then. The people who made these records back in Detroit in 1966 would have loved to have them sound like this if they could have afforded the BBC Concert Orchestra, so really we’re giving this music the treatment it deserves.

I love that. And yeah, there are obviously some stunning venues to play like the Apollo at the Philarmonic Hall in Liverpool and the beautifully refurbished Stockton Globe – how magical is it for you guys to be playing these venues like so many before you?

Yep, The Beatles and The Stones, Paul Robeson and many others have tread those boards and they’ve all got a really rich and storied history. It’s going to be great and I hope there’ll be many more to come after this as well.

Fingers crossed. Lastly, if you could sum up Northern Soul Orchestrated in three words, what would those three words be?

Passionate, thrilling, exuberant.

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Read more:

Northern Soul Orchestrated lands in Manchester on Tuesday, 26 November from 7pm onwards.

You can grab your tickets HERE.

Keep the faith.

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — Charles Patch/Andy Paradise/Press Images (supplied)

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US rapper Ice Spice to play massive Manchester show next month on her Y2K World Tour

Thomas Melia Thomas Melia

Things are about to get a whole lot chillier in Manchester next month, as Ice Spice is set for a massive show in our city.

Fresh off-the-back of headlining Wireless Festival in July, the princess of rap is coming back to the UK next month, and will be bringing the world of Y2K to Manchester, taking over one of the city’s most iconic venues.

Ice Spice, who is most notable for her heavy-hitting beats and collaborations with acts like Nicki Minaj and PinkPantheress, will be arriving in Manchester in a couple of weeks time for the first of three UK dates on her world tour.

After stopping off in Manchester, the rapper will also performing in Birmingham and London in November, so us Mancs need to set the bar high first.

The 24-year-old only came onto the rap scene three years ago, and since then has seen herself become a social media music phenomenon – with each drop gaining more traction than the last.

Her recent single ‘Did It First’ features UK drill artist Central Cee, who joined her on stage at Wireless Festival as part of her headlining slot this July, where she wowed a crowd of 50,000.

‘Y2K’ is the name of the rapper’s debut album, not to be confused with the early noughties fashion resurgence of the same name. However, the real meaning behind the project’s name is due to the American star being born on 1 January 2000.

She may only be 5ft 3, but Ice Spice sure packs a punch, and if it’s not her fiery orange hair, then it’s her carefree stage presence that sets her apart from the rest.

O2 Victoria Warehouse has been a hotspot for many artists including Mabel, Aitch and Becky Hill since its rebrand in 2018, and now the 3,500 capacity venue will be housing The Bronx native Ice Spice on Wednesday 30 October.

Read more:

Tickets are now on sale, with a general admission ticket setting you back £58.35, but there’s also the option to purchase a meet and greet package for £216.35.

Grab tickets here.

Featured Image – Ice Spice (via Instagram)

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